Later that day, Rocky explains to Jennifer the events that unfolded and his introduction to their fifteen-year-old daughter. Jennifer is overall confused by the appearance of an older version of the child in her arms but she does her best to console Rocky's anger towards Lucifer.
Jennifer looks down at their, now two-year-old, daughter. "So.. The remaining time is merging?"
After pacing the floor, Rocky collapses onto the couch with a heavy sigh. "Apparently.. I don't know what I can do!"
Jennifer lays her head on Rocky's shoulder. "From what I gather, all we can do is plan ahead so we can save the next dimension."
Rocky puts one of his hands over his face. "But what if I can not save everyone?" He asks sadly.
Jennifer raises her head and plants a kiss on Rocky's cheek. "Then you save who you can, and regret nothing. It is all for the greater good."
This seems to do little to ease Rocky's mind, nor improve his mood.
In another part of the facility, 953 skips happily down the hall, passing staff as she goes about her business. She makes her way to 106's cell. Upon entering she becomes quickly aware that the normal tar portal is not available to her. She rips up a floor tile and then begins sniffing around the cell. 953 is noticeably distressed as she hurries out of 106's cell and makes her way straight to Rocky and Jennifer's room.
She knocks heavily upon the door until Rocky answers it. "There is something wrong! Lawrence is not.. he has disappeared!" She exclaims in a distressed tone.
Rocky sleepily rubs his eyes. "Are you sure he is not just busy?"
953 nods wildly. "He would NEVER deny ME, of all people, entry into his pocket dimension! There are always two portals open to me.. the one I showed you and another under the floor. Both are gone!" She exclaims as tears slowly begin to fill her eyes and roll down her cheeks. "Please! I know I have never been the best of company, but PLEASE help me figure out what is going on!" She begs.
Rocky looks back at Jennifer, a worried expression adorns her face. "Okay. I know if anything was to happen to my loved ones, I would not rest until I got answers." He smiles sadly at Jennifer. "I will be back."
"Take your time, sweety." Jennifer replies as he walks out, closing the door behind him. She then lays back down, curling up with her daughter in her arms. "I was afraid of this.." She whispers sadly.
Rocky exits the room and follows 953 as she continues to sniff the air.
"I have a scent to follow. I just didn't want to follow it without someone to back me up." 953 says as she advances forward.
Rocky follows silently, skeptical of what they will discover.
They near the staff med room where they find Dr. Therman and Dr. Collingwood standing over a crying Sophia. Sophia is covered, up to her waist, in black tar.
"IT BURNS!!!" Sophia cries.
Dr. Therman turns to Rocky. "I was just about to call you. We have need of your special talent to safely remove the tar."
"Who is this young lady?" Dr. Collingwood asks.
Rocky sighs. "She is my fifteen-year-old daughter.." He says, stepping forward and getting to work removing the tar. He looks up at Sophia. "What are you doing here?"
"I don't know! After the challenge, I reappeared in this time!" Sophia replies in sobs.
"Why are you covered in Lawrence's tar?!" 953 asks harshly.
"I was attacked!" Sophia replies.
"And 106?" Rocky asks.
"I fought him off! I may have seriously wounded him.." Sophia replies.
"LIER!!" 953 blurts out angrily.
Sophia looks up sadly at 953. "Auntie.. why are you yelling at me?!"
"Lawrence was given strict orders to only attack outsiders!! Even if you were attacked, there is no way you bested him by yourself!!" 953 rebuts as her face contorts in anger.
Dr. Therman looks at Rocky and Sophia. "In his defense, it is possible 106 viewed her as an outsider.. She is, after all, not from this particular point in time."
953 glares at Dr. Therman. "That doesn't change anything! I can not get to his dimension to confirm his condition! It is not in his nature to go into his pocket dimension without leaving at least one door open! Also!! There is seriously no way SHE beat him!!"
Rocky looks Sophia in the eyes before speaking. "My daughter has the ability to.. borrow.. the anomalies of other SCPs. As such, she already has yours and.. 682's. This taken into account, she could have fought 106 off."
953 advances, but Rocky stops her. "How dare you steal my anomaly!!"
Sophia shrinks into a huddled position. "It wasn't my fault! You and I have always been close, spending time together, playing, etc. When my anomaly finally manifested, you were the first person I came in contact with!"
953 pulls back from Rocky, stepping towards the door. "I am going to ask 343 to help me get to Lawrence. If I find him dead, I am coming back for you, and you will tell me the truth!!" She then runs out of the room.
Rocky turns around to face his daughter. "Are you sure you merely wounded 106?"
Sophia shrugs. "He isn't easy to get away from.. I could have killed him.. I don't know."
Rocky turns to Dr. Therman. "I want her guarded until I can discover what is going on."
Dr. Therman nods. "I will get her to a reinforced containment cell immediately, and place guards at the door."
Before Rocky can walk away, Sophia reaches out her hand to him, merely grabbing the hem of his shirt. "Dad.. I don't want auntie mad at me. I love her! Please.. I don't want to have to fight her!"
Rocky nods. "I will do all I can to smooth things over." He then heads out of the room.
Once Rocky reaches 343's room, he sees 953 and 343 arguing.
"There has to be SOMETHING you can do!!" 953 exclaims.
"I am doing all I can right now! I only have enough strength to jump dimensions one more time, and maybe enough to oversee the trails. 106 is the least of my concerns." 343 replies.
"HIS NAME IS MATTHEW LAWRENCE!!" 953 shouts in sobs. "I am so sick of all of you referring to us as numbers!! Is that really all we are to you?!!"
953 turns to run away, but ends up running into Rocky's arms.
"Calm down. We will figure this out." Rocky says, giving her a hug.
953 sobs violently. "I can't calm down.. Lawrence and I have known each other for over a hundred years. There is no one on earth that knows him better than me! And I am afraid.. this time.. I may have actually lost him.."
"What are you going to..."
953 looks up into Rocky's eye. "Promise me!!! Promise me you will take me to the next dimension with you! If I have lost him here, there is a chance I will see him again!"
Rocky looks at 343.
343 shrugs. "I left those choices up to you.."
Rocky looks down at 953. "I will. But you have to trust me to figure out what happened and to delegate punishment accordingly."
953 nods and steps back, wiping tears from her eyes. "As you wish.. I will return to my room." She then walks past Rocky and out the door.
Once she is gone, Rocky sits across from 343. "Something isn't adding up. 106 is not the type of SCP you merely escape from, let alone wound or kill. I have a bad feeling Lucifer has something to do with this."
Before 343 can speak, Lucifer steps through a wall into the room. "Always playing detective, Mr. Hagino. Doesn't it ever get old, babysitting everyone else's problems?"
"I suppose you are asking that to get a rise out of me." Rocky replies.
Lucifer shakes his head. "You play babysitter to all of them, put yourself up as their hero, but you don't stop to realize they are capable of fixing their own problems. You could have been focusing on a solution and saving this dimension had you not gotten sidetracked. Instead, you got attached, had a child, and now the time has run out..and conveniently you are forced to neglect that family of yours."
"Lucifer, that is enough pointing out the past. There is no changing it now, we have to move forward or everything will be lost." 343 rebuts.
"How about you tell me what you know about 106's disappearance?!" Rocky growls at Lucifer.
Lucifer snaps his fingers, sits down in a chair he made appear, and crosses his legs. "Sure! I have no fear of telling you! Corporal Matthew Lawrence outlived his usefulness to me. It was fortunate that I got to him in time to save your daughter too! In a way, you should be thanking me!"
"I will thank you the day I figure out whose side you are on." Rocky replies unhappily. "As for 106, why did you feel the need to terminate him?"
"106 was infected by the sin of Greed. This would have easily caused problems for all of us. Even with the sins being dormant, 106's blood lust had risen to uncontrollable levels, hence why he attacked your daughter. I may not have control over which being the sins choose, but I can govern if the host lives. 106 was a special case, since his power came directly from me, so I took that power away."
Rocky sighs. "I guess I can see your point.. I don't like it, but I have to agree it would have caused issues. So you can confirm that it was you who killed 106 and not my daughter?"
Lucifer nods. "Even though your daughter wounded him, it was ultimately I who finished the job."
"You realize I owe 953 an explanation, right?" Rocky asks.
Lucifer again nods. "By all means, tell her. In fact, I will give her a free pass to the next dimension as a gesture of good faith."
"And how do you plan to do that?" 343 asks.
Lucifer smiles. "I will make a trail that she personally must win."
"I am not sure she will be interested in participating in any more trails." Rocky comments.
Lucifer leans forward. "I don't care what she is interested in! We need motivated SCPs in the next dimension. If she doesn't want this enough, she can forget about moving forward!"
Rocky leans forward also. "That is my choice, not yours."
Lucifer locks eyes with Rocky. "If she is not an asset then she is a liability. I will personally kill her if she doesn't step up to the tasks ahead of us."
Rocky turns to 343. "Can he do that?!"
343 thinks. "If you were to choose her to move forward, there is nothing he could do to change that.. However, once in the other dimension, he could indeed kill her."
Rocky stands with a groan. "I will talk to her.."
As he turns to leave, Lucifer adds. "By the way, I am not on anyone's side. I am only interested in finishing what I started."
"Which is?" Rocky asks.
"Getting to the last dimension and saving my own soul." Lucifer replies.
Rocky looks puzzled by this. "You have a soul?!"
Lucifer sits back. "Don't be absurd, Mr. Hagino. We all have souls. Mine is just more complicated than most." He says, looking at 343.
"Whatever that is supposed to mean.." Rocky says, walking out.
Rocky walks through the halls, heading towards 953's cell. Oh the way, Sasha meets him halfway.
"I feel a growing about of anger and frustration from you. I gotta tell you, still being linked to you is a pain in my ass!" Sasha says gruffly. "So what is it this time?"
"Lucifer killed 106." Rocky responds.
"Oh shit! For real?! That is one less murderous psycho, right?!" Sasha asks happily.
"Yeah.. it would be great if I didn't now owe 953 an explanation.." Rocky rebuts.
"Oh! Oh.. Damn. Okay, I will come with you." Sasha says as she turns to walk with him.
Rocky fills her in on the way.
Before they get to 953's door, Sasha stops Rocky. "How about you let me handle this?"
"You know she wouldn't be able to hurt me if she lashed out." Rocky says.
Sasha shakes her head. "Listen. Sometimes it takes a girl's touch on things, and you aren't a soft kind of person. Besides, she and I have something in common. We are both Sophia's aunts. I am sure I can either smooth this over or contain the situation better than you. But you are still welcome to stick around."
Rocky nods and they head into 953's cell. Inside 953 is huddled in a corner crying. The dogs that previously lined her cell lay dead in their own blood.
"Kumiho? Sweety? I am coming in!" Sasha calls out to her.
953 sits up and looks at them. "Did you find out what happened?"
Sasha kneels down next to her. "Yeah. Would you mind if I joined you?"
953 nods silently, and Sasha sits next to her.
"It is not a great situation. The dimension is going to hell in a handbasket." Sasha says softly.
"To hell with it all!!" 953 sobs. "All I want is Matthew back!"
"I know. It would be the same way if Clef was taken from me. In fact, I probably would take it worse since I have had less time with him." Sasha continues.
"I fail to see how that helps." Rocky groans.
Sasha glances at him as if to say shut up. "So.. Sophia was not the one that killed.. Matthew. She was attacked, and did get away..."
"So who did?!!" 953 interrupts.
"Lucifer terminated him."
Without warning, 953 leaps up and heads towards the door. "I WILL KILL HIM!!"
Sasha's flesh arm quickly becomes a chain, wrapping around 953, and pulling her back to the corner. "I wasn't done."
953 struggles against Sasha's chain, all the time furiously sobbing. "Let me go!! I deserve to kill him!! He took Matthew from me!!"
Sasha leans closer to 953. "And would you have reacted the same if I had told you our niece did it?"
953 slowly calms down, knowing she can never break Sasha's chain. "No.. I.. I don't know."
"You would have been mad, but you would have forgiven her. Now hear me out. Matthew had been chosen by the sin of greed, which was a situation that no one could control not even Lucifer. But when 343 and Lucifer made their agreement, the sins went into a dormant state. However, it had already become too much for Matthew. His blood lust had consumed him, no doubt amplified by the sin's influence. That is why he lashed out at Sophia. Had Lucifer not terminated him, he would have chased down Sophia and then taken turns on all of us. If you think for even a minute you would have been safe, you are wrong. We all saw how the sins take control of their host. The mindless attack of 343 by 239 proved there is no reasoning with them. In the end, as the dimension crumbled around you, it would have been a mindless showdown between you and Matthew, and you would have lost." Sasha explains.
953 bursts into loud sobs as she buries herself into Sasha's arms. "You're right! I didn't say anything, but you are right! Normally I would have entered his dimension and collected those livers myself, but he started throwing them out to me as if he was feeding his dog! I tried to get his attention, but he ignored me! I knew he was pulling away from me, and I said nothing to any of you!"
Sasha rubs 953's head. "Your turn." She says, looking at Rocky.
"Kumiho.. We have a proposition for you." Rocky says calmly.
953 wipes her eyes with a slight chuckle. "Are you going to submit that in triplicate?!"
"Sure." Rocky replies with a chuckle.
"Okay.. what is it?" 953 asks.
"The next trail will be exclusively yours if you want to move to the next dimension." Rocky explains.
"Is there a chance I will see Matthew again?!!!" 953 asks, perking up.
Rocky nods. "A very good chance."
953 slowly stands up, as she does their surroundings change to a schoolhouse. "I'LL DO IT!" 953 exclaims, and then looks around confused.
"I am happy to hear it!" Lucifer says with a smile.
682 rolls his eyes. "Not this shit again.."
"682, do us all a favor, and shut the fuck up!!" Sasha barks as she nudges 953 forward. "Go ahead, sweety. We are here for you."
682 turns around and faces the other way. "Maybe you are.." He mumbles.